Our Fees and Service Standards

Service Standards

Treating Clients Fairly Policy

At Chilcotts Law we are fully committed to providing the highest standards of advice and service to our clients by working in partnership with them.

Our clients are our most valuable asset and our aim is to ensure that we deliver a client-friendly, robust, reliable and cost-effective legal service to them.

Chilcotts Law has a strong reputation in the legal market and we strive to build long-standing, trusted relationships with all of our clients. We are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and our Treating Clients Fairly Policy is designed to ensure that we consistently deliver fair outcomes to our clients; in line with the SRA’s Code of Conduct.

We are committed to promoting equality and diversity in all our dealings with clients, third parties and employees.

Our Services

In delivering our commitment to Treat Clients Fairly, Chilcotts Law makes every effort to ensure that our clients are totally satisfied with the legal service they receive and we endeavour to:

make any and all possible accommodations for clients with individual needs so as that they are not at any disadvantage. For example, those clients who are not able to mount the steps into our office are offered [in advance] a meeting at their home. Our staff will happily attend a client’s home for which no extra charge is made

ensure that clients are able to read any documents sent to them that require their understanding. We facilitate this by proactively providing large type documents for our clients with visual impairment

communicate with our clients in a way that they will understand, by using ‘plain’ and not ‘legalese’ language

update our clients regularly on the progress of their matter, especially with updates as to costs, ensuring they understand any potential outlays or fees that may arise

provide our clients with a high quality legal service by offering highly experienced lawyers who are experts in their particular area of work

work with our clients in an empathetic and personable way, particularly when the matter is emotionally delicate, such as when working on a probate with relatives of the recently deceased

operate our Complaints Handling Procedure in an open and fair way, whereby clients are aware of their right to complain to either the firm or Legal Ombudsmen.

ensure that a client or prospective client is treated in a non-discriminatory way that respects diversity.

ensure timely responses and communication at every level in the organisation

understand the importance of the client’s matter to them

respect clients’ wishes and beliefs.

Our Approach

Our priority is to provide our clients with an excellent service underpinned by the quality of our advice. We are committed to ensuring that our clients want to use our services, stay with us and recommend us to their families, friends and colleagues.

Our service is shaped by listening to our clients’ needs and understanding what is important to them. We take responsibility for meeting the needs of our clients and always look for way to improve the quality of our service. We operate a rigorous file review system as part of our internal audit procedures as well as regularly conducting client surveys to ensure that we consistently enhance the service levels for the client.

We recognise that our employees are critical to delivering a positive client experience and ensuring our clients are treated fairly. All of our employees are fully trained in dealing with our clients and in treating them fairly.

Concerns and Complaints

We seek to provide you with the highest standard of service, however, if at any point you become unhappy or concerned about the service we have provided, then you should inform us immediately, so that we can do our best to resolve the problem.

In the first instance, it may be helpful to contact David Wilde to discuss your concerns and he will do his best to resolve any issues at this stage. If, however, you would like to make a formal complaint, then you can read our full complaints procedure which sets out the steps that you will need to take. Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case.

What to do if we cannot resolve your complaint

The Legal Ombudsman can help you if we are unable to resolve your complaint ourselves through our own rigorous complaint process. They will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your case.

Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. If you have and we have not been able to reach a resolve, then you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:

Within six months of receiving a final response to your complaint
and

No more than six years from the date of act/omission; or

No more than three years from when you should reasonably have known there was a cause for complaint

The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help you if you are concerned about any aspect of our professional behaviours, which could include discriminating against you because of your age, disability or other characteristic or not accounting to you for monies provided to us for the conduct of your matter.

Our Fees Explained

Conveyancing

Probate

We are required to publish prices for probate work in relation to uncontested cases, where all the assets are in the UK. This includes both testate and intestate and taxable and non-taxable estates. However, there are a range of variables which could affect the price quoted (e.g. there is a separate cost for preparing tax returns).

A service you can trust.

Expert advice.

The team is proactive and dynamic in their approach offering their clients flexibility and choice at every stage of their case. The range of specialist advice is the combination of over 150 years of experience in the field thus clients can be assured of a comprehensive and quality service at all times.